


Like Rain Like Music

by fallendevil17



Series: Playlist: EXO [2]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Closure, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-10
Updated: 2020-02-10
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:07:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22646887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallendevil17/pseuds/fallendevil17
Summary: Like Rain Like Music by Kim Hyun Sik. This song’s a real classic and it was… Baekhyun stops himself when flashes of twinkling doe-eyes start to  appear in his mind and carefree laugh rings in his ears.-In which Baekhyun found closure through an impromptu late night phone call.
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun/Park Chanyeol
Series: Playlist: EXO [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/972561
Kudos: 9





	Like Rain Like Music

“I’m sorry, Baekhyun-ssi. Have you waited very long?” A man who is at least a decade older than Baekhyun enters the tiny SBS meeting room. Baekhyun immediately gets up from his seat to greet the older.

“No, not at all. I’ve just arrived.” As Baekhyun reaches out his hand towards the man, who shakes his hand firmly, another woman who is in her early twenties with a thick stack of music sheet in her arms and a sling bag over her left shoulder enters the room. Her face turns red when she sees him, and greets him with a shy nod before sitting next to the man whom Baekhyun just greeted.

The man waits for the woman who is most probably his assistant to organize the music sheets neatly on the table before speaking again. “I’m sorry for the delay. Shall we begin?”

“Sure.” Baekhyun indicates with a smile.

“So, you can call me Kim PD and this is my assistant, Sunmi.” He gestures to the woman next to him. “I assume that you already knew the reason why you are here?”

“Yes, I do. My manager had informed that Chen and I are selected to perform for the tribute stages.”

“Yes, yes. We’ve already met up with Chen-ssi yesterday about the song that he would be performing.”

“Ah, I see.”

“So, Baekhyun-ssi, you’ll be performing Kim Hyun Sik’s Like Rain, Like Music. Our music producer has made some slight changes on the arrangement of the song. The new version will be exactly like the minus one in the mp3 recorder.” Kim PD retrieves a set of music sheet as well as an mp3 recorder from his assistant before handling them to the idol.

Baekhyun receives them with both hands, and slightly bows to the PD. “It is such an honour for me to perform Kim Hyun Sik sunbae’s song. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to perform this song. I will do my best.”

“Ah, Baekhyun-ssi, you are such a humble person. You will do well in life. I have to pass the rest of the music sheets to the others, so I’ll leave first.” Kim PD pats lightly on Baekhyun’s back, before exiting the meeting room with a smile followed by his assistant.

Baekhyun exhales in relief, before glancing towards the music sheet in his hand. This song is a real classic and Baekhyun did hear this song several times that he is familiar enough to sing along. It was… Flashes of twinkling doe-eyes and bright smile suddenly appear in his mind, and he shakes his head, as if to shake away those all-too-familiar images as well.

**

“Are you sure you don’t want to go dinner with us?” Jongin asks, wiping away his sweats with the pink towel around his neck. His white shirt is drenched with his perspiration. They have been practicing since morning for their comeback scheduled in next year. The sun has long set in the metropolitan area, left only four of them in this small, sweat-reeked practice studio- Jongin, Kyungsoo, Chanyeol and himself. The rest had to leave early for their personal schedule whereas Yixing is still in the mainland China and will join them for practice tomorrow.

“Yeah. I need to practice the song for the coming Gayo Daejun.”

Chanyeol looks at him and says nothing but the way he scrunches his eyebrows at Baekhyun tells the latter that the younger will be throwing a series of questions when he gets home.

“Oh, okay. We’ll leave first then.” Jongin leaves the room with Kyungsoo, who pushes Jongin away when the younger attempts to put his hand around the older’s shoulder, muttering something sounding like ‘you stink’.

“Do you want me to buy anything for you?” Chanyeol’s deep baritone voice combined with his earnest gaze never fails to make Baekhyun’s stomach churn.

“It’s okay, Chanyeollie. I am not hungry. You go ahead with Kyungie and Nini.”

Chanyeol chews his lips, his fingers fidgeting by his side, looking conflicted. Baekhyun knows very well the reason behind the yoda’s perplexity. He smiles a little at the fact and reaches for the taller’s hand, giving it a light squeeze.

“It’s fine, Yeollie-ah,” Chanyeol grins at the nickname, revealing two neat rows of white, sparkling teeth. “I’ll see you back at the dorm.”

“Okay.” Chanyeol squeezes his hand back and smiles sweetly at Baekhyun before catching up with Kyungsoo and Jongin. When the door shuts behind Chanyeol, the usually cramped and noisy practice studio suddenly feels too spacious and quiet for Baekhyun’s liking.

The vocalist gets to his bag at the corner of the room and searches for the mp3 recorder and his earphones. He takes it out, wears his earphones, and presses the play button.

The instrumental music begins to play, and he waits for the cue to start. 

_**When the rain falls and the music flows** _

_**I think of you** _

As he sings to every word, his mind begins to wander, and a familiar face slowly invades his thoughts, a certain someone with sparkling doe eyes and wide grin. Despite the melody playing on both sides of his earphones, Baekhyun can hear his carefree laughter.

_**The night when you left** _

_**It was raining like this** _

He no longer sings along to the melody, thoughts pre-occupied with **him**. He wonders how have he been. He hasn’t talked to him in ages, since he had returned to his home country. Other than Yixing hyung and Sehunnie, he doesn’t think anyone in the team has been keeping in touch with him. They had parted amicably, respecting his choice and wishing each other well but everyone was evidently hurt by the fact that he had left them, like how the EXO-M leader did, but only that he actually had said goodbye to them.

Baekhyun reaches for his phone in the left pocket of his bag, and he starts to scroll through his contact list. On the contact page, below his name are the numbers that he had personally typed in before he left for China the night before. _“I’ll be using this number when I get home,”_ there was a hesitant smile on his handsome face when he returned the phone to Baekhyun after saving his own number. “ _You can call me if you need anything._ ” Baekhyun had stared blankly at him, not knowing what to say, for the second time in his life. _“You can call even if you don’t need anything. I’ll try my best to answer, that I promise you.”_

Against his best judgment, Baekhyun calls the number. He doesn’t even know why he is doing this. So what if he answers? What is he going to say? Say he calls him because he is going to perform his favourite song in a music show and he misses him because the song reminds him of him?

“Yoboseyo?” The familiar Chinese-accented voice answers on the other side of the phone, causing Baekhyun to jolt. 

Baekhyun calms himself down before answering. “Hello, Luhan hyung.”

“You called.” The tone of surprise is evident in Luhan’s voice.

“Yeah, I did.” Baekhyun purses and unpurses his lips several times before speaking again. “I’ll be singing ‘Like Rain, Like Music’ on KBS Gayo Daejun next month.”

There is a smile in Luhan’s voice, as if he knows why Baekhyun calls him. Perhaps he really does know. Luhan has always been one of those people who understand Baekhyun’s random behaviours. “It’s a great song and you have a beautiful voice, so this song is best sung by you. You’ll ace this like you always do.” Luhan pauses for a second. “Don’t worry.”

There are moments of silence between them, where none of them is exchanging a word. Baekhyun might assume that Luhan has already hung up on him, if it isn’t for the absence of the long, monotone ‘tu’ sound.

“How are the rest?”

“They are fine. We are practicing for the next comeback.”

“Oh, good.” Luhan pauses again. Baekhyun can picture the older scrunches his eyebrow, thinking hard for the right words to say. “How about you and Chanyeol?”

Baekhyun blushes at the mention of him and Chanyeol. “We are… okay.”

Luhan laughs. Baekhyun’s lips curve into a wide grin. Now that he physically hears Luhan’s easy laughter rather than in his recollection of memories, he can’t help but to realize how much he misses him.

“I saw it on the Internet. You two are ogling at each other so much that it’s so painful to watch. You guys are practically drooling over each other.”

“No, we don’t!” Baekhyun practically screeches on the phone. Luhan roars into laughter again, and Baekhyun laughs with him. Luhan’s laughter has always been infectious.

Boisterous laughter slowly reduces into chuckles. “I’m happy for you two,” Luhan says, after chuckles followed by a few coughs. “And I’m happy that both of you are happy being together. I am always rooting for both of you.”

Luhan was the first person to realise what was going on between him and Chanyeol, even before Baekhyun was even aware of it. When Baekhyun had finally come to discover his feelings, he was confused, not knowing what he should really do. He had no one else to confide in, not even his kind and patient leader, Junmyeon when it came to the matter of the heart.

The predicament had gone on for weeks; Baekhyun avoided Chanyeol like a plague, and clearly hurt by Baekhyun’s indifference, Chanyeol did the same as well. The members (and the fans) thought that he had a big fight with Chanyeol when in reality, he was trying his very best to contain his _**unusual**_ feelings for his best friend.

He remembered sitting at the stairs in their dorm apartment in the middle of the night, staring at blank walls and thinking about his dilemma when Luhan had found him and sat quietly next to him _. “I know you love Chanyeol, the boy-love-girl kind of love.”_ Baekhyun froze. _“He loves you too, in the same way.”_ Baekhyun had turned toward Luhan, who did not look at him. Baekhyun was fearful; feared of the rejection that he knew he had to face when the truth was revealed. He had looked to his front, closed his eyes, and braced himself for the rejection that he was about to receive from his group member.

But it never came. Instead, he had felt a warm hand ruffled his hair. He had opened his eyes, and saw Luhan, who had graced him with a gentle smile, telling him in a hushed whisper, “ _And it’s okay to love him, Baekhyun. It won’t change the fact that you are and will always be my good dongsaeng.”_

And embarrassingly enough, Baekhyun had ended up crying in Luhan’s arms, leaving a big, dark stain on his favourite bright, red Manchester United shirt.

“Thank you hyung.”

“Mm.”

Silence again. “Hyung,”

“Yes?”

“I miss you.”

“I miss you too. I miss the others too.”

 _Then, why did you go?_ Baekhyun wants to ask this but he doesn’t because he already knows the answer. All of them do.

Baekhyun suddenly hears someone calls for Luhan in the background. Luhan covers the phone speaker (judging from the lowering volume of his voice) and answers the person with a few Chinese words that Baekhyun has no idea about.

“Baek,” Luhan calls Baekhyun’s nickname, which causes a warm fuzzy feeling to settle in Baekhyun’s chest. “I have to go now. My, uh, manager is calling for me.”

“Oh okay.”

“You can leave a message if you want. I’ll reply as soon as I can.”

“Okay.”

“Baekhyun,” Luhan pauses again, “Thanks for calling.”

Baekhyun smiles. “Thanks for answering my call, Luhannie hyung. Take care.” Baekhyun hesitates for a while. “Keep in touch.” He had said it before, when Luhan hyung was leaving permanently for China but both of them knew that he didn’t mean it because the younger was clearly upset about his departure. But the circumstance is different now and Baekhyun knows that both of them know he sincerely means it.

Luhan doesn’t speak until a few seconds later. “Of course. You too, Baekhyun. Take care.” Baekhyun hears the evident joy in his voice before he hangs up.

It is a short phone conversation; nothing of significance but it serves as some sort of closure for him as he feels a certain weight in his heart has been lifted. It has been almost a year since that eventful night when Luhan told them that he had decided to withdraw from EXO and return to his home country, explaining how he had thought about this for a long time and at the same time, revealing that his concern for his aging parents and his homesickness were the very factors that drove him to make such decision.

And no matter how much Baekhyun tries to deny, he knows clearly he still couldn’t move on from the fact that Luhan decided to quit and return to his home country (following Kris’ footsteps and subsequently Tao, who did the same for reasons, till this day, unbeknownst to him). If he allows himself to be honest, he feels abandoned, or even betrayed though he knew Luhan had perfectly valid reasons to withdraw from their group and as fellow brother and good friend, he should support him whole-heartedly, just like how Yixing did no matter how reluctant he was to let him go.

Maybe this is God’s plan- to let Baekhyun got chosen to perform Luhan’s favourite song and stirs up his unresolved sentiments toward him, forcing him to actually accept the fact that Luhan had left for justifiable reasons and he should rid of his unpleasant feelings towards the elder. And it did. Baekhyun feels so much better as a peaceful feeling settles within him, for the first time, in a long time.

He plays the song again. When the thoughts of his doe-eyed hyung resurface, he no longer forces them away. Instead, a wide grin graces his beautiful face as he imagines his hyung singing along with him in a country hundred kilometres away from where he is.

**

**Bonus**

“Chanyeol?”

Chanyeol looks up and grins heartily when he sees his lover standing at the entrance of the company, wide-eyed. He runs up to Baekhyun so fast that he nearly trips and falls. Baekhyun shakes his head in amusement.

“It’s already so late. What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in the dorm with the rest?”

“I couldn’t sleep, knowing you are still out here, practising alone. So, I waited for you.”

Baekhyun blinks at Chanyeol, looking incredulous. “You waited for me? Out here?”

“Yeah.” Chanyeol beams proudly.

Baekhyun playfully grabs and pulls both of Chanyeol’s ears. “Dummy, you could’ve just punched in the codes and get inside. It’s so cold outside tonight. You could’ve fallen sick.”

Chanyeol pouts. “I am sorry.” Then, he puts on a sheepish smile as he reaches for Baekhyun’s hands and gently pulls them away from his ears. He doesn’t let go, and instead tightens his grip around Baekhyun’s wrists. “I guess I got too excited that I forgot.”

Baekhyun laughs at how incredibly dumb (yet adorable and sweet) Chanyeol is, and suddenly the words spoken by Luhan many nights ago resonate with him. _It’s okay to love him._

“Okay, let’s go home, dummy.” Chanyeol’s grin is even wider than before as he nods enthusiastically.

It is more than okay to love him.

_**It is perfect.** _


End file.
